


just coffee.

by ncmadsoldier



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkward Flirting, Domestic Fluff, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-24 12:51:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19724041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ncmadsoldier/pseuds/ncmadsoldier
Summary: sam wilson and bucky barnes are college students in the same study group. bucky brings coffee every day for himself, sam, and nobody else.





	1. bucky.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the msww groupchat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the+msww+groupchat).



> this is my first actual written au and i am NOT a good writer so be nice to me :)

it was 3 in the morning. Bucky Barnes was wide awake thinking of the same four things he thought of every night he couldn't sleep. 

_what would life be like if my mother had never died?_

_what if the apocalypse happens and i'm the only person who survives?_

_what happens after death?_

_what if I've met my soulmate already and don't know?_

he was sitting on the back porch of his house with a cup of coffee. he had meant to go to bed hours ago, but then the first question popped in his head and he was stuck staring at the ceiling. that was at 10. the second question came at 1:12, the third at 2:05, and the final one came to him at exactly 3. he had decided to move outside when his father came home with the blonde waitress from the cheesecake factory. he's not sure of when he'll go back in yet. he's been contemplating watching the sunrise. 

about 26 minutes ago he remembered that he had class tomorrow. on the plus side, it wasn't until 8 am. if he goes to bed at exactly 4, he will get just enough sleep for his brain to be fully functioning in class. so he's gonna be okay. he has his business management class with that one hot linebacker and then he has his study group meeting and then his art history class. _god, the study group._ he has no idea why Bruce thought it would be a good idea to make one of those. he tried to opt out of it, but Natasha said "if i have to go, you do too.". and he's mortally terrified of natasha. 

he was deep in thought about the third of his four questions when his little sister knocked on the sliding door, making him jump three inches out of his chair. 

"jesus christ bec. what are you even doing up?" bucky turned his chair to face her. rebecca opened the door, stepped out, and dragged a chair right up next to bucky and put her feet in his lap. 

"nightmare. no big deal." she shrugged it off. 

"it's not 'no big deal', bec. it never is. what was it?" bucky gave her a concerned look. rebecca shifted uncomfortably in her chair and looked everywhere but bucky's eyes. 

"seriously buck it's no big deal. can we go get ice cream? i finally found somewhere that's opened 24 hours!" rebecca hopped out of her chair excitedly and started towards the door. bucky sighed to himself and threw his head back.

"i will only bring you if you tell me what it was." reluctantly though, he stands. even with the dim light of the porch light, he can see her rolling her eyes at him. 

"fine. it was standard nightmare about mom. one of the many scenarios in which i could've watched her die. it is seriously not a big deal bucky." bucky just looked at her dumbfounded. she always does this. for the last three years she's been having nightmares about their mom, but refuses to tell bucky. for a year straight she denied that they even happen. but when he wakes up with her in bed next to him with tear stained cheeks, it's a little hard to believe. 

he pushes past her to opens the door. she follows him through the house as he pretends to listen to her rant about her middle school drama. he makes occasional comments such as "there's no way", "why would she do that", and "holy shit" just to pretend that he cares that penelope kissed ryan even though debby liked him first. her drama bored him, but he knows how much it means to her that he listens. 

"oh can i get on aux?" rebecca asks once they reached the car. bucky sighs and unlocks the car. 

"no." he climbs in and turns the key in the ignition, motioning for her to hurry up and get in. 

"please? what if i just use your phone and pick music from your playlist?" bucky is driving now but he's struggling because he can feel her giving him puppy dog eyes.

"fine." he hands over his phone reluctantly. 

the whole way to the ice cream stand bucky can't stop thinking. about his four questions, about the stupid study group, about rebecca and how he wished he could protect her. he was also thinking of sam wilson, the linebacker of their school's football team who sits exactly two rows down and 5 seats over from bucky. they had some unspoken rivalry that no one understood. sam has hated him since freshman year of high school, and bucky automatically hates people who hate him. natasha has been trying to decipher sam's hatred for years but despite her weird skill for finding things out, she can't put her finger on it. 

bucky buys rebecca her ice cream, with his thoughts still clouding his brain. they sit and eat it in the car, rebecca still rambling on about her drama, bucky still thinking about anything but that. natasha was now texting bucky asking him where he was and why he didnt make it to her girlfriend's party. bucky didn't have the energy to ask her why she was up at this hour or bother explaining to her that his thoughts had him stuck in bed all day. so he put his phone down and drove rebecca home. 

"thanks for the ice cream, buck. and listening to me." rebecca says after bucky opens the front door. before he can respond to her, the blonde waitress stumbles into the living room. 

"oh. hey. do you guys know if an uber would come here?" she asks, scratching her head. bucky checks the time. 3:46am. he shuts the door behind him, studies the waitress in front of him, then comes to a decision. 

"bec, go upstairs. where do you live, darling? i don't trust ubers." the blonde smiles up at bucky. bucky hates being a nice person. 


	2. sam.

the sunlight woke sam up a half hour before his father did. he had laid in bed thinking about all the different ways he could avoid going to the dumb study group that hope is making them go join. he's scrapped any variation of being sick, any family emergency, and telling her straight to her face that it's stupid and he's not going. it wasn't until he had adjusted to reality that his dad burst into his bedroom, ready for their ridiculously early jog. 

"come on sammy get your ass out of bed it's already 6!" his father was now ripping his comforter off of him. sam groaned and rolled over just in time to catch the clothes his dad threw to him. 

"i'm getting up. i am getting up." his father had left to let sam get dressed. he sat up in his bed staring at the floor for a few seconds, waiting to get a burst of energy to get him out of bed. after changing into the clothes, he walks into the kitchen and immediately gets handed a gross green smoothie by his father. 

sam's half brother peter is sitting at the island with his head hung low and a bowl of cereal right in front of him. he walks over, ruffles his hair, and took the seat next to him. as sam opens his mouth to start a conversation, his dad cuts him off before any sound could come out. 

"chop chop sammy we're burning daylight here!" his dad's voice booms from his place at the front door, bouncing off of all the walls until it reaches the kitchen. peter looks up from his cereal and him and sam share a knowing glance. sam reluctantly stands and rubs peter's back before leaving the kitchen. he follows his dumb fitness junkie of a father out of his dumb front door to go on a dumb jog in the dumb summer heat with their dumb green smoothies. they ran in absolute silence. no talking, no music, just the quiet whizzing of cars driving by with people inside probably wondering why two men are jogging at six. in. the. damn. morning. 

sam heals the deafening silence by thinking of peter. he wished he could spend more time with him. but with college, high school, sam's football, peter's soccer, their friends, and bad timing, they never see each other anymore.

sam was 2 when his mom died. it was exactly one week after his fourth birthday that his dad started dating peter's mom. within 3 months, they had peter. at first, sam hated peter. his very existence reminded him of the loss of his mother, of a new life he had to adjust to without her. but peter's mother quickly filled as much of the gap as she could, and as soon as she did, sam and peter became best friends. once sam got his license he took peter everywhere with him. they would go out to lunch, go to the mall, go see any new movie that they could afford to see. when sam got his job at the bookstore he would let peter sit and read while he worked. and then sam turned 18. he started partying, going out more, being home less, dating more. then he graduated and whatever was left of their relationship just fell apart.

sam had never realized just how bad it was until he came home at three am and found a sticky note attached to a painting on his bed. the painting was of a person's body with a black cloud for a head. the note read;

_hey sam, you missed my soccer game. dad did too, but mom came. she said you would've been proud though. you wouldn't have. i sucked. anyways, i painted this for you in art class. it's not that good but i wanted you to have it because you always like my art. i'll see you tomorrow. maybe. i miss you though. hope you can make the next game. :) -pete._

it was that note that made sam come to the decision to start making more of an effort to see peter everyday. so far most of his efforts haven't prevailed. no matter how hard he tries, he can't alter their clashing schedules and the fact that there's just no time. he did, however, promise peter that he would completely clear his schedule on saturday so that they could hang out. he prays to god that it all works out. he misses spending time with him. 

sam and his father return to their front door at 6:30. sam now has a half hour to shower and get ready, and about 15 minutes to eat. that leaves him with 15 minutes to sit on the couch with peter and think about that one kid in his business management class two rows behind and 5 seats to the left of him. 


	3. bucky.

bucky's least favorite class was his business management class. the only thing that made it worth his time was texting natasha about whatever annoying class she's in at the moment and whatever sam wilson was doing that was pissing bucky off. 

nat: _he doesn't annoy you buck you just hate that you want him and he hates you_

bucky: _wronggggg. he annoys the shit out of me. his stupid book isn't even open to the right page. and the only thing i "want" from him natasha is for him to take a very long walk off a very short pier._

nat: _and how do you know his book is open huh?_

nat: _stop dodging feelings it's sickening_

at that bucky rolled his eyes and put his phone down to actually listen to the professor. he had about T-15 minutes until this class was over and another 30 minutes until that study group thing. he doesn't even know what a study group is. what do you do at a study group? just sit there in silence and, well, study? that sounds pointless to him. but bruce organized it and told the groupchat that they all have to go. bucky prays to god that it's just his friend group that's a part of it. he doesn't wanna study, let alone study with strangers. 

bucky's head snaps up when he hears his professor's voice yelling sam's name. he had caught sam watching a video on his phone and is throwing a fit over it. 

"c'mon man we only got, like, 10 minutes left." sam defends. something like this happened ever class, and every class it made bucky laugh and made professor ross furious. every head in the lecture hall was turned towards sam, all the girls who had crushes on him were whispering and giggling about it. sam had a sly smile on his face, knowing exactly what he was doing. ross' face is practically red with anger, but he decides to cut the conversation short there and finish up the day's lecture. the whole interaction makes bucky laugh. apparently he laughed a bit too loud, because sam turned and shot him a look. bucky couldn't explain what the look was or how exactly it made him feel, but either way he looked away as soon as sam made eye contact.

the last few minutes of the class dragged on. it seemed like an eternity after sam's commotion when the professor finally lets them go. sam is one of the first to walk out, bucky one of the last. he meets up with steve, whose class is right next to theirs.

"how was the infamous sam wilson today, buck?" steve asked as soon as they saw each other.

"you're an ass. he was himself, a loud obnoxious-" bucky starts, but steve cuts him off.

"lemme guess. ass?" steve laughs at bucky's extremely wide vocabulary. bucky just laughs along and shoves steve's shoulder.

"so hey are you going with us to this dumb study group?" bucky pushes open the front doors to the school. the sun is beating hot on their faces, the sky as blue as ever. bucky took a deep breath to take in the fresh air that didn't reek of bad cologne and teen exhaustion. 

"yeah but i gotta leave like 15 minutes early because i got my political science class at 10:15." steve explains as bucky and steve cross the crosswalk to get to the starbucks. 

"okay good. don't think i could survive going without you." bucky comments as he opens the doors to the starbucks. he immediately feels the air conditioning on his face and is practically drowning in the scent of coffee beans. 

"well you have natasha, don't you? she said she's going and dragging you."

"yeah but it's not the same with only two out of three of the musketeers. need the full clan, ya know?" steve nods.

"yeah i get that. who else is coming?" steve asks as they get in line to order. bucky glances ahead to see who their barista is. he says a silent prayer that it's valkyrie. she has natasha's order memorized and always seems to remember bucky and steve's. 

"the whole friend group is except val. she's working, obviously. but she's coming tomorrow." 

"is this bullshit a daily thing?" they step forward as steve asks. 

"yes." valkyrie answers and leans forward onto the counter, smiling at steve and bucky.

"heyyy val. how ya doing?" bucky says. 

"no time for small talk, barnes. you and i both know that nat will kill you if you're late." she comments. steve and bucky look at each other and laugh. she's right. "your usual, i presume? and i'm gonna go ahead and guess that you're getting natasha her usual as well.... so that'll be $12.85 mister." val extends her hand for the cash. steve pays, following their deal to trade off paying every other day. after a few minutes they grab their coffees and head back over to the school for the study group. 

they make their way down to the library, talking the whole way about how stupid it is that they have to go to this and how they shouldn't have to go because their grades are fine and they're fine and the overall concept is just ridiculous. as soon as the library doors opened, bucky and steve could hear natasha's laugh booming through the room. the room smelt of old books, more bad cologne, and yet again.. coffee. college had a lot of recurring scents. there were rows and rows of bookshelves to their left, right, and in front of them. between two tall bookcases they could see the sign "study corner" hung above an area of round tables, long tables, square tables, and bean bags. bucky always thought this place looked like an elementary school.

they followed the sound to one of the long tables in the "study corner". it wasn't until they walked over to the table and placed their books down that bucky looked around and took in his surroundings. there were more people here than he thought there would be. there was his usual friend group; bruce, scott, nat and obviously steve. but then there was carol danvers, tony stark, thor odinson, hope van dyne, and then, towards the end of the table, right between natasha and tony was sam fucking wilson. 


End file.
